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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

The move follows a Reuters investigation in June that showed how Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware have become popular business-secrecy destinations at a time when Washington is demanding other countries improve financial and corporate transparency.

Reuters found that one 1,700-square-foot house in Cheyenne is home to more than 2,000 firms, including hundreds of shell companies -- paper-only firms with few assets. Some of those firms have been used to shield real estate for a jailed former prime minister of Ukraine, sell fake parts to the Pentagon and process payments for illegal online gambling

I hope it just stays at that level, like with Europe's massive protests in 1968. There was some rioting, debating, and knocking heads, and Charles de Gaulle ended up resigning as French president a year later, but it obviously wasn't the end of the world.

No sense of right or wrong, no responsibility for their own lives, blaming it on the 'rich' people or the 'goverment' and they literally said 'we proved that the police cannot touch us'. Guess they were right.

I'm not going to say what they did (are doing) is right, because riots are never a good thing for any society. Riots are a bit like fire, regardless of whatever the spark was they can quickly burn out of control if not stamped out quick. There are better, healthier, more productive ways of mass protest.

However - it has been a volatile year and all it takes is a spark to encourage people to do stupid things, riots or not. Even if many of these people are simply in it "for the lulz" (trivial reasons essentially), there is the underpinning of disenfranchisement with the establishment that helps create the conditions for mass civil unrest.

Unfortunately what I fear is that once the riots are squashed, everyone will move on to something else and ignore the causes for social collapses like this.

The riots came up over dinner with some older friends of mine. One (who is still a hippie) wondered why this kind of "active social movement" hasn't happened in the US even in lighter tones (she'd been very active in a number of movements and protests back in the 60s among other things) considering similarities in social injustice and I jokingly said maybe it's because most Americans are too overweight to be that active. Then we talked about how the demographic who may have been motivated to march or protest (or just riot) in the states during her youth are probably too absorbed in raging at each other or preaching to thin air on blogs, forums, or on other social media sites.

There are big cities in the US where shop owners pay gangs for protection (similar to the various types of mafia in europe). So, if some people start to riot, these gangs certainly will try to protect their source of income using guns. Most of the time the law abiding citizens don't even know about this.
The question is, what costs more lifes on the long run... up armed gangs, or a riot once in a while. I am not saying that something could be done to change the situation in a fair way. The guns are there to stay, if legislation forbids law abiding citizens to own them, this would give the thugs (who own them illegaly) an advantage (certainly a worst case scenario for the law abiding people).

They don't have the manpower for that, and plus it'd probably just escalate the violence. Water cannons are good for dispersing angry mobs--it doesn't hurt them or give them any real reason to run to the lawyers and sue for brutality. They just get a little wet, a little cold, and feel a lot stupid. It really does take the fight out of them.

With all those no win no fee solicitors, people are trying to sue for everything, no matter how stupid it is. They probably would claim that they were trying to drown them at that caused them distress and blah blah blah. Human right for the win...

BTW amazon UK shows that a lot of people are ordering kubotan, baseball bats and other battering tools.

Ratings agencies helped spark the financial meltdown of 2008-9, when they deemed that steaming piles of mortgage junk were brimming with triple-A goodness. They were wrong – and epically so.

Now S&P downgrades the debt of the entire country, further threatens to do so another notch, teams with fellow ratings agencies to bring Europe to its knees with each new appraisal and gets an assist for wiping trillions in wealth from investors’ portfolios in just a few days.

Well they made a mistake last time, I am sure they are taking extreme measures this time round not to do so again.

I think it is a good think that they did the downgrade, because the US government needs to know that the Tea Party is screwing around with them and messing up the economy, and that the European government needs to get rid of the Euro, or get the PIGS to straighten out their finances.

With the fury, what does the market want exactly from the rating agencies? Sugar-coating bad news, or not making any mistakes at all so they could rely on stock talkers to make their trading easier?

These people need to take some responsibility for their personal finances FFS. Or else, don't trade, and go work under the heel of Big Corp.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Muammar Gaddafi's regime, which London and it's NATO allies efforce themselves to dislodge, called this Wednesday for UK prime minister David Cameron to leave office, considering that he had "lost all legitimacy" following the riots which are shaking the UK.

"Cameron and his government must leave after the popular rallies against them and the violent repression exacted by the police against those who participated in those peaceful gatherings", declared Libyan vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Khaled Kaaim, according to official agency Jana.

"Cameron and his government lost all legitimacy", he added. According to him, "these rallies show that the british people reject this government, which tries to impose itslef by force."

Mr. Kaaim has called "the security council and the international community to not stay idle in face of the blatant agression against the rights of the british people".

While Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwean President Mugabe join the fray:

Quote:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the violent behavior of British police against the riots that have been shaking Britain for four days and asked the Security Council of the intervene, reported State television.

The wild behavior of the British police is unacceptable, said President Ahmadinejad at the exit of the cabinet, according to the website of the television.

Instead of adopting such behavior, British leaders would do better to stand with the people (...) and to listen. Instead of sending troops to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya to plunder the oil, they had better think of their people, he added.

Part of the UK population has lost patience (...) and has no hope in the future, he said.

He also denounced the silence of the United Nations. If one hundredth of the crimes were committed in a country hostile to the West, the United Nations and the organizations that claim to defend human rights would have shouted (...) This is a test for the Security Council to see if he dares to condemn one of its permanent members, he said.

British police arrested 770 people over the four nights of rioting that hit London first, and major cities of England, according to latest figures provided Wednesday by the police.

In 2009, Britain and other Western countries have condemned Iran for having used violence against the protests that followed the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tehran has described the conviction of interference.

Dozens of people were killed in opposition protests denouncing massive fraud. Thousands of people were also arrested, including several hundred were sentenced to long terms in prison.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe for his part, said Tuesday that Britain should deal with the current riots in several of its cities and leave Zimbabwe alone.

"Great Britain, do I understand, is on fire, particularly London and we hope they can turn it off, they take care of their internal problems and the fire that spreads and leave us alone", says Mugabe In a speech to mark Armed Forces Day.